Nostalgia
by housemartius
Summary: Piper and Percy sitting on a porch. Re-mi-ni-scing (let's pretend that actually works). Age is just a number and Piper and Percy are as unstoppable as ever. Future fic. (for pipercy week on tumblr)


**disclaimer:** characters belong to Rick Riordan

prompt 2: nostalgia

enjoy!

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The soft, sweet smell of honey and maple gently invaded Percy's nostrils as he inhaled the sugary afternoon air. The temperature was shifting, getting cooler by the day, and the trees proudly exhibited an abundance of red, yellow and brown leaves.

Sitting on his beloved rocking chair, slowly and rhythmically going back and forth, Percy welcomed the much awaited arrival of the autumny atmosphere. Summer this year had been quite unbearable for him, what with its unusually insufferable heat and far too long days. When he was younger he didn't mind those sunny, warm times in the very least: he personally preferred to escape the suffocating hot weather by diving straight into the contrastingly cold waters of the sea. But now it was a completely different story: he was no longer a boy.

At seventy years old, Percy had lost his previous impressive strength quite a while ago. He still possessed his unique control over the water, but his body was aged and tired, and could no longer keep up with countless hours spent floating in the gigantic ocean. He could still swim, naturally, but it wasn't the same thing as it had once been...

Sighing, Percy wished in vain for some of that long lost vigorous youth: he missed being able to hold a Celestial bronze sword. Riptide was in its customary resting place: Percy's pocket. He may not be the athletic, energetic warrior he once was, but he liked to be prepared for anything. He was still a son of Poseidon after all, that demigod scent monsters liked to track so devoutedly was imprinted on him till the day he died.

Percy was forced to come back to reality when he heard shuffling coming from inside the house, a door being opened and, finally, the sound of footsteps. A sparkling glass of blue lemonade was gingerly placed on the small wooden table by his right, and the person who had been carrying it sat carefully on an identical chair to Percy's, situated to his right side as well.

"Look what I found," Piper, now just as elderly as Percy, offered him a piece of paper with her small, wrinkled hand.

Scrunching his green eyes, Percy's lips quickly molded into a small smile as he took the crinkled, yellow-ish page from his friend and read the big, black words that composed the title.

'The Bucket List: Shenanigans™ Edition'

A whirpool of memories, hitting him as swiftly as the saccharine afternoon breeze, took over his mind then. There were about thirty sentences in total, drawn in a neat and precise caligraphy, all of which had been mostly written when both demigods were still goofy teenagers.

"Only three left..." Percy quietly commented.

Next to him, Piper chuckled tenderly. "Yup. We've sure come a long way, huh, Perseus?"

The demigod turned to her and grinned brightly, ruffling Piper's grey hair the way he'd done countless times before. He focused his attention on the paper again, thoroughly and intensively reading each and every imprinted word.

"'Rickroll Camp Jupiter'," he paused to laugh at the remembrance. "That was a hard earned victory!"

Piper joined him with lively giggles of her own, no doubtedly picturing an entire camp of Romans hastily assembling in the forum, wondering where the blaring song was coming from.

"Cleaning up your dad's temple from top to bottom was a piece of cake! I'm glad I was able to 'persuade' Frank into giving us that incredibly laborious punishment," the demigoddess added sarcastically.

Truthfully, so had Percy at the time: the original penalty had been for both teens to meticulously wash the entire temple of Jupiter.

Piper leaned closer to her friend, scanning the words on the paper for any more interesting (and already accomplished) goals.

"Ah!" She breathed out as her slim finger paused next to another crossed sentence. "Here's another good one."

'Take Hazel and Nico to Disneyland'

Percy felt himself grinning widely once more. That was, by far, one of his favourites.

He reclined lazily in his chair and said nothing, only stared at the scenery in front of him in gleeful stillness. Piper allowed the comfortable silence to stretch out between them. She understood just as perfectly as he did.

Thinking about their friends engulfed both demigods in an absolute whirlind of emotions, even now.

Even after they'd been on their own for over a decade.

Piper must have sensed Percy's thoughts were taking on a more somber nature, for she decided to interrupt the peace with delicately whispered words. "There's actually one in there we can do today..."

The son of Poseidon kept his green eyes on the multicoloured landscape. "Really?"

Piper simply hummed in confirmation, and cautiously hoisted herself up from the comfy chair, languidly retreating into the house.

About two minutes later, she had returned with two metallic four legged canes, used as walking aids by people much older than them. Percy raised a dark grey brow at her in confusion, but Piper was quick to provide an answer.

"Number twenty-seven."

Percy raised the old, yellow page up to his line of sight and looked at the sentence in question: 'Wreck a blue Prius with 4 legged canes when we're old enough to use them'

A breathy snicker found its way out of his mouth instantly: that one had been Piper's idea. Back in the good old days, she had always poked fun at Percy for having a stepfather who owned a blue vehicle but, above all else, for knowing Percy was quite fond of it. Simply due to its colour.

"If you happened to see me destroy one of those, what would you do?" Piper had teasingly asked back then.

"Gods, McLean! I'm not _that_ much of a fanboy, you know..." Had been Percy's sulky response.

Thus, the daughter of Aphrodite had made him promise to one day join her on this bold and quite impulsive quest. But, to give Percy the time he needed to mentally and emotionally prepare himself, she'd suggested they leave it for when they were both "old as balls", as she'd so delicately put it. The four legged cane addition had been purely for laughs.

As he calmly raised himself from his seat, Percy briefly wondered what both Paul and his mother would say to him when he told them of what he and Piper were about to do, once they finally reunited in Elysium.

Taking hold of the hand Piper had outstretched for him, Percy pocketed their bucket list next to Riptide and firmly grabbed his cane.

"Ready to trash a lame ass car?" The demigoddess amusedly asked him, kaleidoscope eyes shining dazzlingly.

He needn't answer. His happy, assured smirk said everything.

As Piper and Percy made their way through the grass and the trees and the honey and maple aroma that lingered in the fresh autumn air, only two sentences of the ever shortening list had yet to be crossed:

'Infiltrate Hades' palace (if busted, visit at least guitar room before capture)'

'Get to Elysium: apologize for the long wait'

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well, this is how i imagine these dorks when they get old: tired and a bit fragile, but never letting that get in their way

hope u liked this, feedback is always appreciated :)


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